Slav
The Slav are a warrior race, on average 8 feet tall and incredibly strong, they have gray scaled skin and no hair on their bodies, the scales on their bodies are incredibly tough and hard to pierce. They only have four digits on their hands and feet and they have nearly no lips to speak of. Their eyes are only a small black slit iris on white eyeball; this slit does expand some in low light. They use melee weapons when boarding ships called Klava's, axe like weapons. The Slav are a low tech race, they have the ability to use Hyperspace gates, they also have a formidable fleet, but their tactics lean towards using (hull piercing) boarding ships to get up close to their enemies, their technology is more than 100 years behind the Sol Federation's. They have had very successful victories through conventional fleet battles. Politics to the Slav are a minor thing, Diarchy is there method of Government, and one is a spiritual leader, the other a military leader. Military leaders are not chosen they earn their right through blood. If one chose to challenge for the position of Kreen(military leader) all they must do is defeat the current leader in hand to hand combat, anyone can challenge the current Kreen, they do not even have to be Slav. The challenger must pick a "Korsa" which means second, if the challenger fails to defeat the current Kreen, the Korsa is killed, not the challenger. If the challenger defeats the Kreen (Kreen can only be defeated by death or submission), the challenger is the new Kreen and his Korsa is his second in charge. The religious leaders (Krumkul) are chosen by the people and are traditionally female. Kreen can chose who they are allied too and what wars to fight. The Krumkul have far more wide spread powers, all laws, economics etc, is chosen by the Krumkul. They're position is held as long as the people choose for them to remain. A great Krumkul may remain in her position till she dies. Slav warriors have a strict code; they are to protect those who cannot protect themselves. This extends further than just other Slav, though when the code was written; it was too ensure the non-combatant population was strictly protected. This code now extends to all those in need. They are not soldiers though; soldiers like the S.F. Marines are always soldiers. Slav warriors are only combatants when conflict arises. Many Slav warriors are engineers, doctors, scholars, scientists and traders. In times of relative peace, they contribute 2 months out of the year to protective service; this service involves boundary patrols, colony guard, and escort. Rest of the time they continue their prospective professions. Combat service is gender based, men fight as ground forces or protective services. Females are pilots and gunners on board ships (including breach pods). Religion is fairly complex and actually very gentle in comparison to Slav politics of war. The Goddess "Kuo" created Slav women first, but saw they were in danger from the beast of fire (Lava type of monsters of mythology) so She created the Great Slav warrior Glar, to defend and defeat the beasts. He did so and after he had destroyed them all, the women all bore his children. So much like their political system, they worship two deities, Glar the Destroyer and more so Kuo the eternal mother. There is a great book written by Kuo prophets which details all of the mythology behind the religion, it is 400 Volumes which are 1500 pages each, called Nerpha (Work of holy prophets). They also do not believe Kuo is the only Deity in the universe, they believe each race has their own creator. They enjoy learning about other Deities to different cultures, they believe it expands their knowledge, they also believe a cultures religion shows the true nature of the people. They are highly respectful of others spirituality and always try to learn to never show disrespect. Slav history is muddled amongst mythology and religion, so every "history book" is also a religious text, so how much is truth and how much is mythology, is rather confusing. They never used the concept of historians or archaeology, though they freely share their religious texts and allow Human historians to study their texts; they do not allow them to excavate ancient sites. The Slav have never desired nor had imperialistic ideals, never tried to build an empire, they have several colonies in their system and an neighbouring system, the neighbouring System is home to the Hayut people, a peaceful people that only have exploration ambitions. They were invaded by the Corsacs nearly 200 years ago, the Corsacs were exterminating them. The Slav came to Hayuts aid, a massive war erupted between the Corsacs and Slav, and it ended in the Corsacs retreating from the Hayut system. After this the Slav built defensive colonies in the system to protect the Slav and never allow the Hayuts to be harmed again. Though the Slav asks for nothing in return, the Hayut share their discoveries and new technology with the Slav. The S.F. had first encounter with them in 2430 (though they were known to the S.F. via Agians). The encounter was tense, both ships were warships and had weapons locked. It was over a misunderstanding as Human translator misinterpreted the Slav greeting "Yia Ku" (Good honour) for "Die for honour", so the Captain of the U.S.F. London readied weapons and shields, the Slavs saw this and did the same. If it wasn't for a low rank communications officer, who realized the mistake his superior made, war between the S.F. and Slav may have been inevitable (Course that low ranking officer was quickly promoted). After that only real incident, the Slav and S.F. slowly learned to trust each other, even opening a beneficial trade arrangement. They are currently in the talks (for the past decade) for a true military alliance, thanks to the Agians. Though there have been several incidents where the Slav have helped an S.F. ship and vice versa. The Slav actually desire a military alliance with the S.F. and genuinely like Humans as a whole, they just have never had a military (wartime) alliance with anyone that wasn't under their protection so it is new to them. Especially since Humans are very militaristic and far from being a race that cannot defend itself. The S.F. have a similar code of conduct, they are more welcoming to the idea. The Slav love Earth beef, so trade arrangement was made that the Slav would trade their precious Kray steel (A.K.A. Slav Steel, very strong and workable metal), for Earth grown beef. Cows were attempted to be farmed on Slav home world, but the grass killed them. This is not the only commodities they trade in, but they are the most prized.